Chad Gray drawing new interest

There are sharks in the water circling Chad Gray, the basketball player committed to the Gamecocks who found himself dogpaddling with nowhere to go. The president of the University of South Carolina denied him admission to the school less than a month before school starts.

Gray attended Preparatory Academy in Port Charlotte, FL, one of 22 high schools whose academic standards are being reviewed by the NCAA. USC President Andrew Sorensen said Gray does not meet the school's admission requirements.

Major college programs including Oklahoma State, Indiana, and Kansas State are now showing intense interest in the talented power forward who is ranked a 3 star recruit by Scout.com.

However, Gray is making it clear that he still wants to be a Gamecock, and as reported earlier by GamecockAnthem.com, that is why he is looking at every possibility to overturn the university’s decision, whether it be through an appeals process, or an actual lawsuit.

USC Coach Odom and his staff continue to stay on top of this, hoping that there might be some way that Gray will still be able to attend USC and don the garnet and black this fall. Odom made an earlier statement that, It's my belief that he worked extremely hard and did everything he did over the past two years because he wanted to be a Gamecock."

Gray stated that he had been cleared academically by the NCAA with a 2.5 grade-point average and an 820 on the SAT. ``I am a fully qualified. I have been cleared by NCAA Clearinghouse,'' Gray told The Greenville News. ``Other players that went to Florida Prep this year are enrolled in other SEC schools and universities. This is not right.''

Three other SEC schools have accepted recruits who graduated from schools on the NCAA list: Georgia accepted a player from Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, and Alabama and Arkansas have accepted players from Genesis One Christian Academy in Massachusetts.